Kids and Health Care Reform

Johns Hopkins School of Medicine learns that children without health insurance are 60% more likely to die from serious illness than insured kids. The information was gathered for a study that began in 1988 and wrapped up in 2005. In the 37 states that participated in the research, 117 million children were hospitalized. Six million children were uninsured and 38,649 died in the hospital. The most common causes for hospitalization were complications from birth, pneumonia, and asthma.

Southern, Midwestern, and Western states had higher mortality rates than the Northeast.

Uninsured kids appeared to have an increased risk of dying no matter what their illness was. The study’s results do not include children who died without hospital care or after discharge, which of course means the death rate of non-insured kids is likely higher.